Data Archive Policy

All scientific data from NRAO telescopes are stored in an archive.
The archive contains the raw data: GBT files in FITS binary table
format, export files from the VLA, and FITS-IDI files from the VLBA,
including correlated data from any non-VLBA telescopes that have been
used in conjunction with the VLBA. These data are reserved for the
exclusive use of the observing team for a fixed period after
the last observing session of a project has been completed.
This proprietary period is 12 months following the last
observation.

In certain circumstances (e.g. multi-epoch monitoring projects or
projects that require several VLA configurations) the default
proprietary period may be lengthened by the NRAO Proposal Selection
Committees. Requests for modification of the proprietary period must
be made by filling out this Web
form and forwarding it to the relevant site director. Data that
has already become public cannot be made proprietary under any
circumstances.

Some Rapid Response Science proposals, in particular "Exploratory Time"
and "Target of Opportunity", have shorter proprietary periods. See
the Rapid Response Science web page for more
details. All data, taken as part of instrument calibration,
engineering or software testing are immediately public with no
proprietary period. Calibrator data which are taken as part of a
proprietary project can be requested by first filling out Web
form.

Page charge support of archival data analysis will be considered on a
case-by-case basis. See the page charge guidelines web page,
click here.
Any published papers
that use data from the NRAO Archive should carry the following
footnote in the text: "The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a
facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative
agreement by Associated Universities, Inc."

Please note: VLBA observations carried out as part of the VSOP mission,
identifiable by project codes beginning with V or W, are not available
directly from the VLBA archive. Requests for
archival VSOP observations should be directed to the space VLBI
group in ISAS/JAXA, c/o: murata@vsop.isas.jaxa.jp.